FORMER Blackburn Rovers striker Nikola Kalinic says Dnipro have united war-torn Ukraine as they prepare to face Sevilla in the Europa League final tonight.

Kalinic joined Dnipro from Rovers for around £6m in 2011 and has helped the Ukrainian side to the first European final in their history.

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The 27-year-old, who scored 15 goals in two seasons at Ewood Park after arriving from Hajduk Split in his native Croatia, could be involved from the bench in tonight’s final in Warsaw after losing his place to semi final goalscoring hero Yevhen Seleznyov.

Kalinic had started the first leg of the semi final against Napoli and previously netted against Olympiakos in the last 32, as well as scoring twice in a group stage victory over Qarabag of Azerbaijan.

Dnipro’s progress to tonight’s final in the Polish capital of Warsaw has come as the eastern Ukraine remains embroiled in conflict, with Russian rebels fighting government forces for control of the region.

The war has meant that Dnipro have played all 16 of their matches in the Europa League away from Dnipropetrovsk, even though the city is 200 miles west of the conflict zone.

Dnipro have instead made the 310-mile trip to Kiev for their home games in the competition but were backed by 62,000 fans at the national stadium for the second leg of the semi final, and are expected to have a strong following again in Warsaw tonight.

“Dnipro has really united the country,” said Kalinic.

“Since we reached the semi final, the whole of Ukraine has stood behind us.

“We will have a lot of support in the stadium.”

Dnipro have reached the final despite scoring only 14 goals in 16 games in this season’s Europa League, pulling off a major upset to defeat Rafa Benitez’s Napoli after previously surprising Ajax in the last 16.

“People say we were lucky,” Kalinic said.

“For three years in a row we have played well in Europe. Were we lucky to qualify from the groups in all three years?

“I would rather say we are the ones that did not have good fortune.

“Last year we unluckily lost to Tottenham, for example.

“But people don’t have an idea how strong Dnipro are because most fans around Europe follow the top four or five leagues and don’t really care about the rest.

“This team has been built over four years, and has not changed much in the past three seasons.

“In the summer of 2011, when I joined from Blackburn, there were a lot of transfers, players came from all over.

“Some of them didn’t stay long even though they were bought for big money.”

Sevilla are hot favourites to claim victory and win the competition for the fourth time in nine years – having defeated Benfica in last season’s final.

But Kalinic said: “Sevilla are by no means more of a quality team than Napoli.

“We will not fear them, but we will not push forward and be naive.

“We will play as we always do - firm at the back, very organised and waiting to endanger the opponent on the counter attack.

“We want to win it so badly.”